Manahatta NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (79)
See it if You are interested in Native American issues, both in reinterpretations of history and contemporary
Don't see it if You are close-minded, get confused by double casting or jumping between time periods Read more
See it if You like densely told stories that go back and forth in time.
Don't see it if You can’t pay attention to a detailed story being told. Read more
See it if you want to see intelligent handling of the old subject of the injustice of Europeans towards native Americans. Staging was amazing,.
Don't see it if You are offended about seeing the sins of your ancestors or if you want a pretty story that works out for everyone in the end.
See it if you wanna see a well written story about Native Americans, spanning centuries and switching between the past and the present.
Don't see it if you are looking for light entertainment or comedy, or if complex timelines easily confuse you.
See it if Masterful weaving plots of past and present between Native Americans and White people's capitalism. Great story and history.
Don't see it if 2008 financial crisis, murder, US history, family dramas aren’t your thing. 1 hour 45 minutes; 1 intermission. Read more
See it if you want a well written and moving story told by an expert cast.
Don't see it if you aren't willing to stay focused on a detailed story--or don't know about the 2008 banking scandals.
See it if Strong writing & performance, excellent staging. Author could have risked more esp. with auto bio character, Not preachy for subject matter
Don't see it if You don't want to examine American capitalism or consider how we compromise our values to survive / excel in it Read more
See it if you don't mind having to concentrate on a dense play and figure things out.
Don't see it if you are looking for something light and dislike finance. Read more
Critic Reviews (19)
“Now open at the Public Theater...Nagle’s play traces the origins of American finance and the follies of its bottomless appetite for capital to the exploitation of the Lenape by the city’s Dutch settlers.”
Read more
“Many of the characters in Mary Kathryn Nagle’s ;Manahatta,; now running at The Public Theater, wear their naïve hearts on their sleeves, appearing trustworthy until the moment they’re proven otherwise...Laurie Woolery’s production isn’t understated, but it does make a statement.”
Read more
“Overfamiliar writing like this, however earnest, doesn’t introduce us to fascinating people; it confirms narrative tropes...We know what we’re witnessing is devastating, but what we feel is abstraction, as if we’re looking at the chalk outline of a body without the body in it.”
Read more
"At under two hours, 'Manahatta' doesn’t sprawl, but the breadth of its canvas is so large that almost inevitably some passages feel rushed, and some characters more archetypal than fully realized—figures glimpsed from afar and sometimes hazily."
Read more
“The play disappoints because it could have dug deeper, told us something research materials don’t or can’t. May it inspire other, beginning writers. Anyone can scribble a moral; mapping a journey to the revelation is hard.”
Read more
“Mary Kathryn Nagle’s ‘Manahatta’ offers a useful service: She is a Native American playwright reminding us what it truly means to reckon with the blood that white Americans have shed in the name of independence and progress. Thankfully, Nagle’s ambitious play, making its New York premiere at the Public Theater, has more to offer than just a history lesson.”
Read more
“ ‘Manahatta’ is a thing of mirrors...as Nagle makes blazingly clear, much work needs to be done to break the mirror image of the past that continues to plague us today.”
Read more
“Thanks to the razor-sharp writing, directing, and solid performances all around, ‘Manahatta’ is a powerful discourse on the lives of the Lenape during the colonial era and through to the present day. But be sure to listen closely as the zingers fly, or you might miss interactions like this one between two of the colonist interlopers discussing how they might manage things when they drive out the Native Americans and, with them, the fur trade on which they depend.”
Read more